The quantitative relation between T1-weighted and T2-weighted MRI of normal gray matter and iron concentration.

A retrospective analysis of 158 T1-weighted and T2-weighted MRI scans of normal brains at 0.5 and 1.5 Tesla was performed. Signal intensities in the frontal cortex, caudate nucleus, putamen, and globus pallidus were divided by those of frontal white matter; and these gray/white ratios were correlated with iron concentration, estimated from the anatomical region and age of the patient. Intraregional plots were also made of gray/white ratio versus age for the 1.5 Tesla scans. The changes in both T1-weighted and T2-weighted ratios were consistent with the hypothesis that 1/T1 and 1/T2 vary linearly with iron concentration, and the corresponding coefficients, determined separately from the interregional and intraregional plots, were generally in agreement. Furthermore, the variability of the MRI ratios at 1.5 Tesla was consistent with expected iron variability except for the cortex, in which partial volume errors due to sulci and white matter caused increased variations. The MRI results agreed well with in vitro data on T1 and T2 in tissue specimens and with other MRI studies. When compared with T1 and T2 in ferritin solution, a significant "tissue relaxation enhancement" was found, attributable to slower diffusion and clustering of ferritin in tissue.